In various applications, signals are modulated to change the signals in a desired manner. For example, in some applications an analog signal may be converted to a digital signal having a certain bit width, for example an 8 bit signal, a 10 bit signal or a 20 bit signal, and subsequently a modulator may be used to convert the digital signal to a bitstream, i.e. a series of signal values indicating either a logic 1 or a logic 0. For example, digital modulators somewhat resembling a sigma-delta-converter may be used for such a conversion.
For instance, in case an input signal has a high dynamic range, which may be for example the case in some applications where an original analog signal is generated by a microphone, a higher order modulator may be needed to obtain a desired signal to noise ratio than for applications with lower dynamic range. For example, for a standard dynamic range a fourth order modulator may be used, and for a higher dynamic range a fifth or higher order modulator may be used to generate the bitstream mentioned above.
However, in this case also subsequent circuitry utilizing the bitstream, for example a CODEC (coder/decoder), may have to be adapted to the order of the modulator used. In some cases, this is undesirable, and in some environments it would be more desirable to be able to use the same circuitry for processing the modulator output like a bitstream regardless of whether a signal with high dynamic range or a signal with low dynamic range is to be processed.